Over the years humanity has experienced a significant increase in the world population, and today that number continues to rise. With an increase in people, the demand for food goes up tremendously. Agricultural science has continuously developed new technologies that have enhanced the efficiency and value of agricultural production. Although the enhancements increase the production of agricultural goods, it’s important to understand the impacts it has on our environment and food system. In this book review, I will discuss both the cultural and natural dimensions of Agricultural Biotechnology, and how it relates to our current problems in Human Relations. I will also provide personal insights and feelings in regards to the book titled Enough: Staying Human in and Engineered Age written by Bill Mckibben. I will discuss the dynamics of the book and present specific evidence and quotes from the book to support my statements and feelings I have toward the book. I chose to do a book review on the book titled Enough: Staying Human in and Engineered Age written by Bill McKibben because I believe it is relevant to what I’ve been learning in Current Problems in Human Relations course. In this book, the author, Bill McKibben discusses different components of new technological advancements such as, the current development of biotechnology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and the creation of robotic technology, and he fears that if these new technologies are not controlled, they will most certainly change our natural way of life. Bill McKibben argues that we all have the ability to limit ourselves and realize when something is good and when something is bad or wrong. “We need to do an unlikely thing: we need to survey the world we ... ... middle of paper ... ...ize that new technical advancements are not always a good thing, and we need to restrain our limitations and recognize that we truly have enough stuff already. I would recommend this book to everybody. Even though there may be individuals that might disagree with some of the arguments that McKibben poses throughout the book, I still think it is a great book to get any mind thinking about the challenges that lie ahead for our future. I will end with a quote from McKibben (2003) “These new technologies are not yet inevitable. But if they blossom fully into being, freedom may irrevocably perish. This is a fight not only for the meaning of our individual lives, but for the meaning of our life together” (p.199). Reference Works Cited McKibben, Bill. 2003. Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age. New York: Owl Books: Henry Holt and Company
Society has made many vast advances over the past 50 years. Technology is one of the biggest industries that has made the most dramatic changes. Everyone loves new technology, so much that it almost takes over his or her lives. Ray Bradbury is a sci-fi author that seemed to have predicted the future of society and technology in his short stories. In most of his short stories, however, he criticizes what technology can become, and recognizes the problematic effects that can come with too much technology. Through Ray Bradbury’s short stories, he makes it apparent that his concerns with technology and modern day society are that technology has the ability to isolate people, advancing too fast can have catastrophic consequences and society could
Mankind must fight the urge to be blinded by technology’s benefits and to consider what must be lost to gain these conveniences.
Naively, we human beings believe we live in the dazzling golden age of technological advancements. Only, news flash: we’re not. Global food insecurity is at an all-time high. We’re struggling to feed a population that rises as quickly as the mercury in my thermometer. As demand soars and food dwindles, the men in power only seem to grow in size: from their wallets to their waistlines. So, you must ask yourself: what’s the easiest way to produce high quality crops to satisfy our hunger and their lust for money and power? The answer: Genetic Modification. As the documentary Food Inc. suggests, the concept may be brilliant, but the outcome is abhorrent.
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
Technological innovation is now one of the most basic motivations in developing the human society. However, some technological growth is worrisome, especially digital technologies, because a lot of intellectuals claim that technology is changing the human mind and these changes are probably not all positive. Nicholas Carr, one of the intellectuals I’m referring to, uses his personal experiences to tell the worrisome about the convenience we gain from the developing technologies is changing our minds, and probably destroying our abilities of independent thinking. Obviously, Carr ignores the positive impacts of technology which are more effective than the negative impacts he focuses on. The technology development is still one of the most important
Technology is constantly improving. In the last century, humanity has witnessed technology improve at an exponential rate and society change with the technology. Alfred Borgmann is concerned with explaining whether or not the rapid growth of technology has been good for society. His book, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life is an insightful work that explores and critiques modern human interaction with science and technology. One of his main concerns was critiquing technology’s effect on society through a moral lens. This is a complicated task because our rhetoric on technology is dominated by science instead of morals, so it does not seek to define right and wrong. Science is also the basis from which technology has come from
The human race is held ransom; there is no escape root by its own creation. The rate at which technological advancement happens is alarming. There is no knowing where this frenzy will end and what remains is the painful fact that unless something decisively courageous is done to halt this obsession, humanity faces an imminent obliteration by its own creations – technology.
A theme that appears over and over in discussions about technology is whether or not technology is the cause of major social, cultural, political, and economic changes in modern society. Of course, we can find many, many examples of technologies associated with enormous social changes. The automobile, for example, is often spoke of as "causing" a whole array of social changes, from the creation of suburbia, to the development of the fast food industry, to the paving of farm land, to the imported oil vulnerabilities of the 1970s. The popular media is filled with similar examples of new technologies that are going to change everything, from computers to nanotechnologies to new medical devices. And we are often told that we must find ways to accommodate ourselves to these new devices and to the changes they will cause, that we must strive to ride the wave of social flux produced by emerging technologies, or face the dire prospect of being "left behind."
The most wonderful activity a human being can experience is new flavors and foods. For example, the first time a person tastes a delicious juicy piece of prime rib or a delightful hamburger with cheese and ham, his world is never the same. However, since the beginning of the twentieth century, the production of food has been supplemented by science. This has triggered an angry dispute between the people who support the advances of biotechnology and people who love nature. In order to understand the controversy, we have to know the meaning of genetically modified foods. With new technological advances, scientists can modify seeds from a conventional seed to a high tech seed with shorter maturation times and resistance to dryness, cold and heat. This is possible with the implementation of new genes into the DNA of the conventional seed. Once these "transgenes" are transferred, they can create plants with better characteristics (Harris 164-165). The farmers love it not only because it guarantees a good production, but the cost is also reduced. On the other hand, organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of Earth have campaigned against GMO (“Riesgos”) because they think that they are negatively affecting the earth (Gerdes 26). Both the advocates and the opponents of genetically modified foods have excellent arguments.
The defenders of biotechnology extol its potential to increase food production and quality and to cure diseases and prolong human life. Its critics, on the other hand, claim that genetic engineering of food would produce “ Frankenfoods ” (Best and Kellner 440) that would pollute
In the beginning of the earth, nature was in balance, and as man multiplied, farmers’ became efficient with knowledge and new technology to feed the world through increased productivity. As the population grew in the evolution and development of society, farmers have accelerated techniques to meet those needs to feed the world through mechanization and research, allowing others to prosper in other desired fields. Modern biotechnology has made it achievable for manipulation and alteration in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene, to heighten resistance to disease, further allowing advances in medicine, including genetically modifying seed for increased food production engineered with pesticides. Society began to disapprove of these techniques, and the modern advances of farmers’ including genetically modified organisms. Accordingly, legislators’ passed laws ridding these practices, such as medicines, pesticides, fertilizers, and food additives that could be harmful to humans and the environment. Consequently, farmers’ had become so few and insignificant, no one contemplated the scarcity of food for the world; diseases, as well as starvation intensified when sustainable plants died. With the loss of soil degradation, deforesting, and overgrazing goes man 's ability to grow food crops and graze animals, to produce fiber and forests needed to nourish the world. Nevertheless, the population grew, and governments fought wars over land and water to provide for the masses; habitats were lost, the elimination of millions of people in war, disease, hunger and famine took place. Those persons (lawyers, doctors and industrialists….etc.) whom the farmers’ bestowed their positions in society could not provide food...
Mannoia, Jim (1997, May 15). A philosopher looks at the effect of modern technology on our view of human life. At http://www.houghton.edu/offices/acad_dean/Techpap.htm.
New opportunities and challenges of human health are presented by the application of biotechnology to food. Biotechnology helps improve the quality and nutrition of foods consumed by people,this helps their health. Foods produced through biotechnology has been around for more than 15 years but people are still debating about how safe the food is. Biotechnology still have to plays its role by increasing agricultural productivity,especially in light of climate change. I believe that biotechnology is still going to help better th nutritional value of food. It can also assist farmers to increase their productivity so that they can feed their families and many people across the globe. The whole world should be using the food biotechnology because it has the ability to change the world,it can be to end world hunger .
Biotechnology is a process that involves a controlled or deliberate manipulation of biological systems or life forms. With the aid of scientists, biotechnology has been used to produce genetically modified foods. The term GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. (Whitman).The modification of the genetic structure of food is an old concept, one practiced by farmers for thousands of years. By cross breeding different types of crops; mainly crops with good traits, they were able to come up with new organisms that possess desired traits. The problem with that process is that cross-breeding is slow and unpredictable. Today, thanks to progress in biotechnology, scientists are able take a gene from one living organism and put it directly into another plant or animal. This resulted in more precise changes in a shorter period of time. Scientists claim that this new methods created crops that taste better (more nutritious), yield more, repel pests and grow in more difficult conditions. The outcome of this led to cheaper crops that feed billions of people all over the world. This progressive method has revolutionized the way we produce food to feed our growing population. In this paper, I will be defending the motion that biotechnology is ethical. In order to do this, the meaning of ethics must be clarified. Ethics is one branch of philosophy that asks questions about the best human life and how to live 'the good life.' Through ethics, we examine the ch...
The world’s population is increasing at a rapid rate. According to Worldometers, by 2050 there will be a need to feed 9.2 billion people globally (http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/). This translates to an increase in global food production by 70 percent to meet the global goal (http://www.populationinstitute.org/resources/populationonline/issue/1/8/). However, current food production methods are not sustainable and the amount of arable lands is decreasing. The agriculture industry experiences different challenges ranging from global to technological aspects. The global aspect is the most prominent challenges experienced and influenced by different factors such as dramatic economic growth in developing nations and urbanization resulting in more ‘consumers’ rather than ‘producers’. In addition, farm produced commodities are increasingly used as feed-stocks for bio-fuels in response to decreasing supply and increasing price of fossil fuels. Agriculture biotechnology organizations are committed to solve crop production problems and enhance agriculture productivity to sustainable levels to keep pace with the rapidly expanding global population. Multiple approaches have been utilized by these organizations to address these challenges and to date the two most significant are technological and scientific methods advancement.